Israel and the Lebanese government carried out their first experiment in the “pilot zone” Hezbollah disarmament program, one the United States hopes will ultimately accomplish its plan of disarming the designated terrorist group using the Lebanese government.

The pilot zone program, laid out through several rounds of negotiations between Israel and the Lebanese government and mediated by Washington, will have the Israeli military withdraw from small amounts of Lebanese territory at a time, handing over control to reliable units of the Lebanese Armed Forces. The U.S. State Department, the Israel Defense Forces, and the LAF all confirmed the development in their own statements.